Singapore’s female employees want flexibility at work

The survey also showed that 72% of women said they would find it helpful if their employers gave them the option to work remotely every day.

About 62% of women said that they have either left a job or considered leaving one because their employers do not offer flexible working policies.

In addition, 31% are concerned that they will have to bear salary cuts, while 28% worry that people will think that they are not working as hard if they showed interest in flexible work.

Women are also keen to take a career break to balance their work with priorities in life, but fear this will further limit their career opportunities. About 70% have taken a career break, citing reasons that include the need for personal time off to figure out their next career move, burnout, as well as parental and caregiving responsibilities.

Of those who have yet to take a career break, 58% intend to do so in the future. However, 59% of respondents think that taking a career break would make them less attractive to hiring managers and recruiters. Additionally, 53% of respondents said that taking a break would set them back in their careers.

The survey also showed that an increasing number of organisations are keen to provide greater flexibility for their employees. About 93% of respondents said that their company has updated or improved its flexible working policy since the pandemic started.

Businesses are also seeing the benefits of work flexibility. They found that upon improving policies around work flexibility, they have achieved an improvement in productivity levels (40%), strengthened their brand image (36%) and improved employee retention rates (36%).

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In addition, more employers (59%) are starting to realise that candidates who have taken a career break may be an important untapped talent pool. About 55% of employers agree that people returning from a career break have often gained valuable soft skills, with the five most valuable skills being: resilience (35%), time management (35%), problem-solving (33%), thinking creatively (33%), and patience (31%).